The federal government will lean on the states to help communities suffering from prolonged drought but Malcolm Turnbull says farmers will ultimately have to adapt to the consequences of climate change.

With drought threatening much of the east coast grain crop as well as large swaths of Western Australia, Mr Turnbull said the rural sector needed to become more "resilient" to adapt to what was "clearly a drier, hotter and more variable climate".

"That's what we've got to plan for, resilience is the key," the Prime Minister said.

"The climate is changing. I know it becomes a political debate. But there's no doubt that our climate is getting warmer.

"I don't know many people in rural NSW that I talk to that don't think the climate is getting drier and rainfall is becoming more volatile."

Mr Turnbull said while income support and associated measures like counselling were important for short-term relief, ultimately "you've got to ensure we can do everything we can to ensure that farmers are resilient".

This could range from greater incentives for building feed and grain storage facilities to even running fewer stock.

"The reality that you face is that rainfall has always been variable in Australia, it appears to be getting more variable," he said.

He was speaking on the first day of a three-day listening tour of NSW and Queensland with his senior agricultural ministers including Nationals leader Michael McCormack and Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, whose Queensland seat of Maranoa is in its seventh year of drought.

Well then Lee, that’s fixed. Those pesky farmers are too dumb to work out how to deal with a drought, Malcolm will have to tell them to build more grain storage ( why?). and to cut the stocking rates during drought, now there is a novel idea! Sheep stocking rates in WA are probably on the way down anyway after the live shipping fiasco and threats of total bans. Thank heavens we have Malcolm out there fighting for those on the land! If agriculture were left to the political class, we would all starve. There must be some farmers asking for handouts, or this is just warm, fuzzy drought advice from the farmer’s friend.

I wonder why Mr. Turnbull won't REALLY help our farmers, etc. during the hard times? People say things like "They chose that life....take the good with the bad,etc..." But, based on that theory, why do we GIVE $340 million to the Phillipines, even though they just spent $400 million on Attack Helicopters? They chose "that life!" as well! Those figures tell me that these choppers only cost them $60 million, then!There was another generous donation by our government recently (probably Julie Bishop!) of $160 million, again at the time of farmers battling to keep their noses above water, and it was said that "$160 million would buy a lot of hay!!" Not to mention (but I will!) that our generous, caring government literally gives this money away, and at the same time, "generously" allows OUR farmers bloody loans, and then they have to pay it back, how's that for caring? Meanwhile Filipino pilots are flitting around the skies in FREE Attack choppers, probably smiling at their amazing luck! 😡😡☹️👎

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Live as if the world were as it should be, to show how it could be.If what we do doesn't matter, then the only thing that mattersis what we do.